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Op-Ed: Trump’s Election Was a Total Dick Move

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Op-Ed: Trump’s Election Was a Total Dick Move

The fragile male ego ruined history once again.

Published November 10, 2016

Hillary Rodham Clinton, the most qualified Presidential candidate in American history, conceded the election to Donald James Trump, a man with no experience. Clinton is a trained attorney, former FLOTUS, prior U.S. Senator and previous U.S. Secretary of State. President-elect Trump is a former reality television personality who has never held public office. The Republican candidate won the Electoral College and his party maintained control of both the House and Senate.

F**k.

President-elect Trump will nominate at least one Supreme Court justice, appoint the U.S. Attorney General, the U.S. Secretary of State, the heads of every department in the federal government and will serve as Commander-in-Chief to our nation’s military. Who let this happen? Predominantly, Trump voters are white people, both working class and affluent.

White male patriarchy, however fleeting, is at its most desperate.

Corporate media has already decided that African-Americans didn’t turnout at polling stations, yet Clinton won every county where Black people are the majority population. It’s easy to point the finger at independent voters, the 4 million votes cast for the Green and Libertarian parties certainly would have benefited Clinton’s campaign in critical swing states like Florida, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Clinton lost those states by a margin of 1 percent.

Every vote counts, particularly those which are wasted.

However, the fact remains that almost sixty million people voted for Trump. 60 million tax-paying American citizens voted for a racist, sexist, xenophobic, politically inept, debt ridden, morally defunct, sexually predatory alleged child rapist with the endorsement of the KKK. How could this happen in America?

America loves straight white men and hates everyone else. In America, hate is its most powerful voting bloc. It defines “them” and positions “us” in direct opposition. If something affects us and does not impact them, it’s not an issue.

Why Brexit? Well Britain is the other nation full of white men. White men perceive social progress for historically marginalized minority groups and people of color as a threat to their existence as the status quo majority. White male fragility protects its own, aggressively defending the white nationalist patriarchy.

Their egos are so damn delicate.

They’re the type to sound clarion calls of “All Lives Matter” or “Blue Lives” when Black lives are destroyed. They’re the type to distinguish “red-blooded Americans” as “real Americans” and naturalized citizens as “illegals.” They’re the type using political dog-whistles so that metropolitan areas become “inner cities” and unemployed high school students become “thugs.” They’re the type to see Black heroin users as “violent drug offenders” and white heroin users as “teens in need of rehabilitation.”

If you’re not sick already, you should be.

Meanwhile, they hold the majority of CEO positions across Fortune 500 companies. They predominantly act as sheriffs, prosecuting attorneys and county judges, denying racial bias, while disproportionately imprisoning Black and brown people. They are the primary owners of sports franchises, banking institutions, gas stations and grocery stores.

The struggle continues.

When historians assess this election, it should be evident that white nationalism and sexism were its lifeblood. If Hillary was a man, we’d all be chillin’ right now. But nooooooo…she had to be born with a vagina. Maybe Trump will really make America great…for small-minded white men.

This moment, this mind-numbing fog of shock and awe that won’t dissipate, is our wake-up call.

This is what Malcolm X meant when he spoke about being “politically awakened.” It means recognizing that voting for Trump over Clinton, and Johnson over Stein, is bald-faced sexism. It means realizing that all of us in the minority (Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, immigrants, the impoverished, disabled and women) need to stand against the majority (“broad-shouldered” white men).

The Obamas weren’t kidding when they said we’d need to do everything in our power to ensure Trump doesn’t become the president.

Exercising your right to vote, much like physical exercise, needs to be routine to deliver real results. In state and local elections, held during the middle of the president’s term, there is more opportunity to elect public officials that impact your daily life. That means staying informed, mobilizing around an agenda and voting to ensure the job gets done.

We didn’t lose everything.

California elected a new U.S. Senator, Kamala Harris, a Howard University-educated State’s Attorney. Harris is the second Black woman in history to become a U.S. Senator, following Carol Mosely Brown (D-IL) in 1999. This incremental, institutional change is the result of focused, deliberate political mobilization.

How am I going to explain any of this to my children?

Perhaps by educating them honestly about the world in which they are being raised so they will be better equipped to deal with the realities of racism, sexism and xenophobia. The notion that Black and brown people, women, men and children alike, are human beings with inalienable rights, having the agency to make their own decisions in the land of the free is pretty straightforward. It’s critically important to teach them about powerful women who fought injustices like Ida B. Wells, Fannie Lou Hamer and Shirley Chisholm. Arming them with information will protect them against allowing the uninformed to hold the country hostage with bigotry and ignorance.

Raising our kids in denial of reality leaves them in the position we find ourselves this morning – a living nightmare.

Russ Green is a writer, comedian, husband, and father of four, from Washington, D.C. The Howard University graduate currently resides in Montgomery County, Maryland, living a mostly vegan lifestyle. He enjoys wearing blazers and button-ups and is fresh out of f**ks.

The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of BET Networks.

Written by Russ Green

(Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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